Chapter 10 – A Thousand Different Faces

Summary: In which both Tony and Loki try to play a con on each other, with different results than either one expects.

New Year's Eve came and went and before Tony knew it, it was time to finally get rid of the cast. He couldn't have been happier when JARVIS told him that he could go to the doctor to have it taken off without it looking suspicious. True, he hadn't been wearing it for a month now, but he'd still had to put it on for public appearances and it had made everyday tasks a bitch to do.

But no more. He was free at last.

"So I hear you're back to active duty," Steve said when Tony picked up his call on the way home from the clinic. He had his brand new StarkTech earpiece on, which allowed him to keep his hands free to man the steering wheel. It seemed to be working pretty well so far. He should really get it patented soon, before some leach steals the blueprints from him. Wouldn't be the first time that happened.

"Yeah, I guess so," Tony answered, flexing the wrist on his newly-freed hand. Fake or not, it was good to be rid of the stupid thing at last. "I can't wait to put on my suit again."

Which was the truth. He hadn't been able to wear his suit for five weeks. It was the only thing he hadn't been able to do, because the suit was just too conspicuous and he'd needed to keep his cover. He hadn't gone this long without flying for years - not since he had first made the Mark II. Now he was just itching to put it on and go for a flight.

"It's good to have you back." Steve sounded like he genuinely meant it. "Though it's a shame it took you so long to heal. We could have used your help during that X-Men accident."

Tony grinned, remembering the SHIELD file on it.

"No, you couldn't," he told Steve. "You know that my suit is practically useless against Magneto. I would have just spent the whole fight stuck to some random piece of metal while you tried to take him down."

"Still, you could have provided some support. At least as a distraction." And was that a joke Steve had just made at his expense? Will wonders never cease.

"Hey, it's not my fault Magneto hates Christmas," Tony protested, but he was chuckling anyway, because the image of a grumpy old man in a cape crashing the Avenger party was just hilarious. "Anyway, my suit is almost repaired, so if there's an emergency, feel free to call."

"Will do," Steve promised. "Welcome back, Tony."

"Yeah," Tony said. "Thanks."

He hung up the call and pulled into his garage, leaving the car by the entrance. Right now he only had eyes for his suit, which was standing proudly by the display cases, fully restored to its former glory. Loki was nowhere to be found, so Tony just walked up to it and let the armor snap into place around him, enveloping him with the familiar smell of metal and electricity.

Tony didn't even wait for JARVIS to run all the diagnostics - as far as he was concerned, the computer could do that just as well during the flight. The moment his faceplate snapped into place, Tony activated the thrusters and sped out of the driveway, happy to finally be in the air again. He hadn't even realized how much he had missed this until he was flying high above Malibu, the cars below nothing but colorful specks on the ground.

He spent a good half an hour in the air, just zooming around the coast and enjoying the freedom before he relented and decided to go back. Loki was in the workshop when he came back, leaning over a desk to examine the Doombot hand. He looked up when Tony flew in, his eyebrows climbing when he noticed the armor.

"Did I miss anything interesting?" he asked as he watched the assembly line take the armor off.

"No." Tony grinned at him, pumped full of joy and adrenaline from the flight. "No world-threatening emergencies. I just went for a joyride because I finally got the green light to fly in the suit."

"Oh. You look…pleased about that."

"Damn right I'm happy," Tony said. "I haven't been able to fly for a month."

Loki frowned a little. "You didn't seem terribly bothered by your temporary limitation."

Tony shrugged. "I found other ways to entertain myself." He shot Loki a lewd grin. "But still, it's about the principle of the thing. Why stay on the ground when you can fly?"

"Why indeed," Loki mused.

Tony waited for the last piece of equipment to be pulled away by the robotic line before he stalked over to the demigod, stopping less than a foot away. He was feeling full of energy, like he usually did after a particularly thrilling flight. Most of the time he channeled that energy into creating new inventions, but Loki's presence in the room gave him a different idea

"Were you doing anything important with that hand?" he asked, completely failing at nonchalance as he propped his arm on the desk next to Loki's hip, moving into his personal space. He could almost see the moment when Loki's mind clicked onto his wavelength.

"No, nothing particularly interesting," he said slowly. "Why?" He leaned back against the table, cocking an eyebrow.

Tony licked his lips, mentally going over a hundred different pick-up lines. In the end he decided with the most straightforward approach. Judging by the interest in Loki's eyes, there wouldn't be much need for persuasion, anyway.

"Do you have any idea how many times I have wanted to bend you over this table?" Tony asked, stepping even closer. He was close enough to see Loki's eyes widen and his breath hitch a little. Yep, the blunt approach seemed to be working just fine for him.

Loki's throat worked a few times as he deliberated his answer.

"No?" he tried finally, his eyes lingering on Tony's lips. "I would not mind hearing about it, though."

Tony stepped forward until they were touching from shoulder to knee, pressing the demigod against the desk. He only had to tilt his head a bit to be able to whisper in his ear.

"Talking would take too long." Slowly, deliberately, he raised a hand and ran it over Loki's chest and down to his belt.

"Why don't I show you instead?"

A few hours later he was lying on his bed, basking in that pleasant half-awake state that one has after really good sex. Loki had teleported them into the bedroom sometime after the first round, which Tony had had absolutely no complaints about at the time, but now the comfortable mattress was making it hard for him to get up and go back to work. Instead of working on the new tablet design like he had been planning to, he could only lie and stare at the ceiling, his muscles suffused with pleasurable lethargy.

He was almost on the verge of dozing off when he got woken up by JARVIS's voice.

"Sir? You have an event to attend in an hour."

Tony threw the ceiling a half-hearted glare.

"Which one?"

"The Golden Globes Awards Ceremony, sir."

"But I'm not an actor. Or a producer," Tony argued.

"No, but you are a public figure. It has been almost two weeks since you were last seen in public, sir. It would be advisable for you to make an appearance, because some of the media are starting to speculate that you had a mental breakdown."

Tony ran an exasperated hand over his face.

"Let me guess – Perez Hilton?"

"Among others."

He sighed, sitting up a bit. "Why is it always a mental breakdown? What if I had ran off to the Bahamas with an entire team from the Lingerie Football League? Or joined Magneto in his quest for mutant world domination?"

Next to him, Loki stirred. "Where are you going?" he asked, lifting his head a bit from the pillow.

Tony made a face. "To a film awards ceremony, apparently, because otherwise the people of America might start to think I was killed and got replaced with a lifelike animatronic model by bodysnatching aliens." He lowered his legs over the edge of the bed and walked over to the bathroom to freshen up a bit.

It took him less than ten minutes to make himself somewhat presentable. He came back to the bedroom wearing only a towel, but stopped midway to the walk-in closet when he noticed the look Loki was giving him.

"What?" he asked, feeling a little weirded out by the stare.

"You're not wearing a shirt," Loki pointed out, his gaze flitting between Tony's face and chest.

"Oh." Tony looked down to see that yes, he had forgotten to put on an undershirt, which meant that Loki now had a front row view of the arc reactor. Loki was still wearing a strange expression that did nothing to raise Tony's confidence. The billionaire grimaced. "Yeah, this is what it looks like."

He promptly turned his back on the bed and disappeared into the closet, not emerging until most of the shirt buttons were done. Loki was still lounging naked on the bed, but the previous sleepiness was completely gone from his eyes. Instead he looked alert and - what was worse - interested.

"May I see it again?" he asked, rising from the bed to walk over to Tony. He lifted a hand slowly, reaching out to touch the arc reactor, but pulled back when Tony instinctively flinched from the touch.

"Maybe some other time," Tony told him, taking a step back to put on his jacket. "Now I have to go and entertain the masses." He paused for a moment, getting an idea. "It's too bad you can't come with me," he said casually. "I'm sure a minor scandal of some sort would be a huge improvement to the evening I'm going to have."

"I could wear the same disguise I used for your party," Loki suggested.

"Nah," Tony said. "There's gonna be a ton of reporters where I'm going. If you showed up looking like that, you would draw way too much attention. Besides, the rockstar excuse wouldn't hold for very long if you kept showing up with me in public. Sooner or later someone would run a face-recognition scan and you'd be fucked. Better not risk it." He made a deliberate pause. "Well, I guess you'll just have to entertain yourself on your own. I'll probably be gone for most of the night."

He gave Loki an apologetic smile and walked out, heading for the limousine that was waiting for him upstairs. The bait was laid, now he only needed to wait and see whether Loki would take it. The demigod must have been bored out of his mind already. Tony's place was pretty nice, but there were only so many things one could do before they went stir crazy. Nothing like a little shapeshifting to spice things up a bit.

At least, that's what Tony was hoping for. There was still a possibility that Loki would just go hunting or watch TV instead. One never knew with him.

Tony managed to arrive to the ceremony on time for once and waved his way along the red carpet and into the auditorium. The ceremony was long and boring and even though the two lady hosts were doing their best to keep the audience entertained, Tony still wanted to claw his eyes out by the two-hour mark. Thank god it ended soon after that, because he was getting close to making something explode. Instead he suffered through countless handshakes and chit chat, before he could finally move on to the afterparty, which luckily contained booze.

He was drinking his second drink and discussing one of the winning movies with its director when he finally saw her.

She was standing near one of the walls, watching the crowd of actors with a faint, disinterested smirk. Black hair pulled into an elaborate braid served to provide a nice contrast to an attractive face. Her tall, slim figure was dressed in a shimmering silver dress that fit right in with all the glamorous movie stars.

Tony carefully turned away, hiding his grin in a glass of scotch. He wondered what Thor would say if he knew his friend Lady Sif apparently had a second gig as a Hollywood actress.

It had taken him a moment to put a name to the face, because he had only ever seen it in the SHIELD files dealing with Thor's first visit to Earth, but he'd managed in the end, because he wasn't a genius for nothing. Since it was highly improbable that Sif had come all the way to Earth just to crash some random celebrity party, it meant that Loki had finally gotten tired of lying about and decided to come out and play.

Well, two could play that game.

Tony let her be for the moment, focusing back on the conversation. It wouldn't do to show his hand too soon. Over the next hour, he slowly made his way over to her spot. She didn't move around much, preferring to stay back and observe instead, which suited Tony just fine. Thanks to a strategic piece of planning, he managed to accidentally bump into her just as she was passing by, causing her drink to spill just a little.

"I'm sorry." He gave her his most charming grin. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

She paused, raising her eyebrow. "Does that happen often with you?" And oh look, he hadn't even bothered to change the accent.

"More often than it should," Tony said. He offered his hand. "I'm Tony Stark, by the way."

"I know who you are," she told him, showing a hint of teeth as she shook his hand in a firm grip. "There are few people on Earth who haven't heard about you, Mr Stark."

"Good to hear that I'm so popular," Tony quipped.

"I'm not sure if popular is the right word for it," she said, and yeah, that was Loki's trademark snark all right. If Tony had been even the slightest bit doubtful before, now he was certain. Instead of giving anything away, he just shrugged.

"Might as well be one and the same as far as I'm concerned." He gave her a look, pretending to think. "Have we met? I think I might have seen you somewhere before. One of the parties in New York, perhaps?" Hell yeah, this was fun.

She shook her head. "No, you must have me mistaken for someone else. I only moved here recently."

"Oh. Where are you from? You sound kinda British."

Fake Lady Sif barely blinked at the inquiry, staying fully in character as she sipped champagne from her glass.

"I'm originally from Ireland, but my parents travelled a lot when I was little."

"So you've seen the world," Tony said, giving her a slow once over. "Why don't you tell me about your travels over a drink?"

There was a brief flicker of triumph in her eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. A second later she smiled, leaning into him a little.

"Lead the way, Mr Stark."

An hour and a half later, they were riding a limousine back to Tony's place. For once Tony wasn't using the privacy of the car as an opportunity to make out with his lady du jour. In fact, they had barely kissed once over the entire evening, which was fine with Tony. There was a conversation they needed to have before anything else of interest could happen.

The evening so far had been…quite pleasant actually. Tony had given the "lady" his full attention, smiling and flirting, and trying to see just how long Loki's made-up identity would hold before he gave himself away. Tony had done his best to remain subtle, wheedling information out of him under the guise of romantic interest and trying to trip him up over random tidbits of information, but the guy was frightfully good for someone who had barely spent two months on Earth.

In fact, all this only made Tony grateful that Loki had been half-mad when he had attacked New York. If he'd been fully in charge of his mental faculties, there was no way they could have stopped him. Really, the guy was almost frightfully clever when he wanted to be. Few people were able to lie like this and not get caught.

Tony suddenly felt glad for the contract he had made with the demigod. It had felt limiting at first, and borderline dangerous, but the longer he thought about it, the more useful it seemed - as far as he knew, Loki hadn't killed a single person during his stay in California. There had also been a suspicious lack of explosions, so the magic in the contract really seemed to be working.

He'd been wary of the magic before, but now he was slowly changing his mind - if this was what it took to keep Loki not-homicidal, Tony was fully on board.

The car stopped in front of his house, the driver jumping out to open the door for Tony, who slid out, holding out a hand for the lady.

"Here we are, at Casa de Stark. Shall we?" he said with a smile. She took his hand and stepped out of a car, doing a great show of looking around and pretending surprise.

"This is where you live?"

"Yup." Tony gestured for the driver to go and led the woman into the house. They barely made it inside when she pressed herself against him, giving him a slow, teasing smile.

"So it's really true," she murmured. "You would truly take home anyone." Was it Tony's imagination or did she sound a little…disappointed?

"Not just anyone," Tony gave her a winning smile, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I like people who have a little something special. You know, like an interesting personality, or a great rack…or magic." He gave Loki a look. "So. Are you going to change back now or do you want to have sex like this?"

To Loki's credit, he only blinked a little.

"What are you talking about?" he said, still keeping in character.

"Oh, you're good," Tony said with admiration. "But you can change back now, really. I know it's you, Loki."

A second later the air around the figure shimmered and the woman turned into Loki, who took a step back, frowning at him. Tony released him, curious to see what his reaction would be.

"How did you know it was me?"

"JARVIS told me about your little shapeshifting trick," Tony admitted. "As for me knowing it was you, well, you're not as subtle as you think you are. I knew it was you almost right away, but you looked like you were having fun, so I decided to play along."

"Why stop now?" Loki asked, curious. "You could have had me as a woman and reveal it afterwards."

"Because having sex with you while pretending that you're someone else would be a serious dick move," Tony told him. "I may be an asshole, but I'm not that much of an asshole. No matter what people might say about me."

"But you still spent the evening toying with me." Luckily for Tony, Loki seemed more amused than annoyed by it. "You knew who I was and yet you let me believe that you were ignorant. Why?" He cocked his head, waiting for Tony's answer.

"Because it was fun," Tony said simply. "You were trying to pull a con on me, seduce me and then make a big reveal at the end – or so I assume. I decided to make a game out of it - to see just how far you were willing to go. Turns out that it's a bit further than I'm comfortable with."

"Interesting," Loki drawled, giving Tony an assessing glance. "It has been a very long time since anyone was able to see through my tricks."

"Well, if your normal standard for intellectual company is Thor, it's no wonder," Tony said, making Loki smirk. "No offense to your brother but he does seem rather…gullible."

"Yes, he is." Loki's lips pulled into a grin. "Unlike you, he never failed to fall for my tricks."

Since it seemed that Loki was planning to spend the rest of his evening by basking in his own cleverness, Tony decided to get a drink. He poured himself two fingers of whiskey and leaned on the bar, savoring the drink.

"So, shapeshifting," he said. "How does it work, exactly? Is it just an illusion you put over your normal body, or do you completely change your shape?" He gave the guy a slow once-over. "What little I have seen so far seemed to support the second theory. Those boobs pressing against my chest a few minutes ago have felt pretty real, at least."

"They were," Loki confirmed, wearing a devilish grin. "As much as anything conjured by magic can be real." He followed Tony to the bar, pouring a glass for himself. He had become increasingly familiar with Tony's selection of drinks over the past few weeks. "Your second guess is closer to the truth. I can put an illusion of someone else's face over my own, but the more convincing illusions are achieved by changing the shape of my body."

"How do you achieve that?" Tony wanted to know, his curiosity taking over. Do you simply rearrange the atoms? Or do you borrow some extra ones from somewhere else?" The sheer implications of the magic-induced physical processes made even his mind boggle.

Loki smiled, sipping his drink. "Your approach is far too narrow-minded. Magic works on different principles than your so called physics – it originates from the mind, not the world around you. It works on more levels than just the one perceivable by your meagre senses. It changes your perception along with the world around you. "

"What is magic, exactly?" Normally, Tony would hate all this metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, but since he was trying to construct a weapon against a crazy European magic-wielder, he needed all the help he could get.

Loki took a moment to think.

"Hm, I suppose it would be best described as a type of energy. It is part of the universe, woven into the very fabric of reality. When you wield it, you have the power to bend the reality to your will. There are very few things magic itself cannot accomplish – the only limitations lie in the mind of its wielder."

"So Thor was right when he said magic was simply a more evolved version of our science?"

"Thor has always oversimplified everything, but in this case he is essentially right. Your understanding of magic will be limited by the tools at your disposal and your own prejudice, but if you put in enough effort, you should be able achieve at least partial understanding of what you are facing."

"I should be able to make an anti-magic device, then?" Tony asked. "Something that will work against Doom, even though I don't have any magic myself."

"I believe so, yes," Loki confirmed. "You are a man of remarkable talents. I'm convinced one mediocre magician will not pose much of a problem for you."

"Speaking of remarkable talents," Tony said, "what sorts of shapes can you change into? I've only seen a woman so far, so I assume you can change both into men and women. What else?" He was genuinely curious.

Loki hesitated briefly before answering. "I can impersonate any person of any race or sex, at least superficially. There are probably some subtleties I would not be able to portray correctly without previous study, but my arsenal is still vast. The better I know someone, the easier it is to imitate them."

"So you could walk out of here tomorrow wearing my face and announce that I have decided to live out the rest of my life in a monastery on the moon and nobody would bat an eyelash." Tony didn't know whether to be horrified or impressed.

"Essentially, yes." Loki grinned.

Tony shook his head. "My mind still can't decide whether this is brilliant or creepy as fuck." He shot Loki a look. "Remind me never to piss you off."

Loki's grin widened. "It is good to see that you're finally learning some respect."

"Not respect, self-preservation," Tony corrected. He walked over to the window, thinking about everything he had just learned.

"You know this shapeshifting thing has unlimited possibilities of use, right?" he said after a moment. "You could impersonate anyone. You could commit a crime and pin it on someone else. You could pretend to be the president and make an outrageous speech that would incite a war between nations. You could-"

"How do you think I've been amusing myself all these centuries?" Loki interrupted him. "Asgard can get unbearably dull after a thousand years or so. Igniting scandals is the most fun one can have without getting arrested."

"Right, God of Mischief," Tony remembered. "I guess that particular moniker is well deserved in your case."

"Yes, very," Loki said proudly. "Though my pranks have done little to endear me to the Asgardian populace."

"No, I guess not," Tony said. "You should have tried hitting things with a hammer instead. That seems to impress them."

Loki chuckled. "Yes, it does." He gave Tony an appreciative look. "I must admit, I like the way your mind works. You discover my secret ability and instead of being awed or horrified, or trying to convince me to stop using it, your mind immediately jumps to all its potential uses for corruption. You are far less bound by the Midgardian morals than most humans that I have met."

Tony shrugged, kicking back the rest of his drink.

"I never claimed to be a paragon of virtue. Creative? Yes. Genius? Yes. Borderline crazy? Possibly. Heroic role model? Hell no." He poured himself another drink. "I've been trying to get you to do the bodyswitching trick ever since I found out about it. You're really hard to manipulate, you know that?"

"And how long have you known?"

"Since I broke my hand," Tony admitted. "JARVIS showed me the recording."

"You knew all this time?" Loki asked incredulously. "Did it never occur to you that I might be someone else who is pretending to be me?"

"It did," Tony said. "That was one of my first thoughts. But I watched you for a while and eventually ruled it out."

Loki shook his head, stepping closer. "You're mad," he told Tony, with a mix of disbelief and admiration. "You are completely insane, but I love it."

That was the first time anyone ever expressed fondness for Tony's particular brand of crazy. Tony couldn't help but stare a little.

"You know," he said when he found his voice. "Most people would tell you that you shouldn't encourage me. Things tend to explode when I get creative."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Since when do you listen to what other people think?"

Tony gave him a grin. "Exactly."

When Loki stepped in to kiss the grin off his face, Tony didn't do a single thing to stop him. It was actually pretty nice, this casual intimacy they had. They could argue about magic and pizza toppings as much as they wanted, but at the end of the day none of it mattered, really. Tony didn't have to worry about impressing him, or charming him, because Loki was going to hightail out of here once the armor was finished. This way Tony could enjoy their few months to the fullest, because they both knew that their little indulgence didn't mean anything.

And boy, having a steady source of great sex was seriously awesome. Much better than random fumbling one night stands. Tony was going to miss it when this was over.

For now, though, Loki was still here and willing to indulge Tony's whims, just like Tony frequently indulged his. It was no wonder then that Loki looked receptive when Tony pulled back from the kiss and gave him a playful smile.

"Will you show me what you can do?"

Loki's eyes narrowed in mock-suspicion. "If I find that you are doing this to gather information on me…"

Tony couldn't help it – he rolled his eyes. "Please, you've been hanging around my workshop for weeks now. You've seen every single thing I'm working on. If anyone has the information here, it's you. This only makes us even."

Loki still pretended to consider. "My magic is not some circus act to be performed for your entertainment," he said, but it was half-hearted at best.

Tony walked over to the couch and sat down, leaning back comfortably.

"Indulge me. Just this once." He gave Loki his best puppy dog eyes. "You watch me work all the time. It's only fair that I get to look, too."

That seemed to be the breaking point. Loki gave a long suffering sigh as he walked across the floor to Tony, but it was apparent that he couldn't wait to show off. Tony draped his arms over the back of the couch, settling in to watch the show.

And it was quite a show. Loki's transformations were mesmerizing to watch. He took on several different shapes for Tony's amusement, including a few of the Avengers. His rendition of Captain America had Tony in stitches for good five minutes. When he finally recovered, Loki was already back to himself, watching Tony with an amused expression from his comfortable perch on the barstool.

"Oh god," Tony said once he could speak again without laughing. "I can't believe I used to have a crush on that guy when I was a kid."

That made Loki frown and straighten up a bit. "You liked him?"

"My dad used to talk about him all the time. On those rare occasions when he remembered to acknowledge my existence, he usually told me tales about Captain America. I had a bit of a hero worship going on as a kid and I suppose the crush developed from that," Tony shrugged, not embarrassed by his youthful obsession. He stood up to go refill his glass at the bar. "I had a crush on him for years. Then I finally got to meet him in person and any remains of attraction I might have harbored promptly died a swift and shameful death."

"Why?" Loki asked in puzzlement. He seemed weirdly tense, from up close. "He could be considered reasonably attractive by your people's standards, could he not?"

"Yeah, I suppose he's fairly good looking," Tony said, leaning on the bar next to him. "But it's hard to be attracted to someone whose manners remind me of my maiden aunt Beatrice. It makes you afraid to make a single inappropriate joke, or his head might explode from all the innuendo." Tony sighed, shaking his head. "All right, now I'm being harsh on him. The guy is doing pretty well, considering the time period he came from. It's just that he's so repressed, he could give nuns a run for their money. No way I'm ever touching that."

"What if you could?" Loki asked suddenly, wearing a strange expression. Tony would almost believe that Loki was into the idea, if it wasn't for the tight set of his shoulders and way the demigod refused to meet his eyes as he said it. "What if there was a way-"

"Fuck no," Tony didn't even let him finish that thought because holy shit, that was hundred kinds of fucked up. "There's no way you're roleplaying Captain America for me. I'm open to a lot of things, but this is just…hell no."

"Very well," Loki said, his face relaxing. "What would you like, then?"

"I was thinking more about the practical uses for this," Tony said, his mind already spinning in other directions. Loki's bizarre offer had singlehandedly managed to kill all his thoughts of sex for the moment (or the nearest future because Jesus Christ, he would never be able to look Steve in the eye after something like that).

"Such as?" Loki cocked an eyebrow.

"Well," Tony began, "as a widely beloved public figure, I'm expected to attend tons of events. Parties, fundraisers, balls – as long as there are rich and/or important people in attendance, I'm usually there. You've seen how dull these things can get."

"What does this have to do with me?" Loki asked, but for all his pretended disinterest, he was already leaning forward a little to hear Tony's idea. "It is none of my concern that you have to attend these events."

"That's where you're mistaken," Tony told him, pointing with a cocktail umbrella he had snatched from the nearby stack. "When I'm bored, my work morale tends to hit rock bottom." He gave Loki a look.

"And you expect me to do what? Entertain you? I am not a court jester," Loki pointed out, but it was clear that the idea had caught his interest.

"I can't be seen multiple times with the same person, because the media would go crazy trying to figure out who you are." Tony unglued himself from the bar, taking the floor with a glass in his hand. "Nobody gives a shit about my one night stands, however. Those have stopped being tabloid fodder years ago. If I'm seen with a different person each time, no one will bat an eyelash."

Loki continued to look unconvinced. "What would I get out of it?"

"Imagine the fun you could have," Tony told him, using the same smooth voice that he did for his sales pitches to the board of directors. "You could discover people's secrets, whisper them into the right ear, then step back and watch the show. You could flirt with someone's wife and make the guy fly into a fit of jealous rage, you could push someone into making a drunken scene…" Tony could just imagine it. And, judging by Loki's growing grin, so could the demigod. "The potential for chaos is high."

"I'm listening," Loki said, tilting his head a little.

Tony continued. "We could even turn the shapeshifting into a game – you could change into a random person without telling me first and I would have to figure out who you were."

"What if you guess wrong?" Loki said, crossing his arms. Still, despite the outward show of reluctance, he seemed intrigued. "What if you don't recognize me and try to take home someone else?"

"Well," Tony said, giving him a grin as he walked closer. "I guess in that case you will have to punish me for losing the game."

"Hm." Loki licked his lips. "This game of your sounds intriguing. I am willing to participate, under the condition that I get to choose the punishment for you."

Tony felt his heart speed up a little, adrenaline rising in anticipation at the look he saw in Loki's eyes.

"Looks like I'll just have to do my best to win, then." He crossed the last few feet of space between them, offering Loki a hand. "You've got a deal."

Loki took the offered hand, running his thumb over Tony's knuckles. "I am looking forward to this game of yours."

"JARVIS?" Tony asked. "When is the next party I can go to?"

"The day after tomorrow, sir," JARVIS answered, helpful as ever. "Please try not to cause too much of a disturbance."

"Don't count on it, JARVIS," Tony said, flashing Loki a grin. "So, what do you say we go and have some fun?"

To be continued…

A/N: I know it may feel like every other scene ends with them having sex right now, but don't worry, I will move away from that pretty soon. I wanted to establish the base for their relationship before the plot makes a comeback.

In real life news – I passed my exam! It was the last one left, so now I only need to hand in my thesis and I'll be finished with Law School. The best part of all this is that I can go back to writing now, since I no longer have to spend 12 hours a day with my nose buried in textbooks. Once I get over my post-exam exhaustion, I should be back at work on this story (and all the other stories waiting for me on my hard drive).

The next chapter will be posted on Friday, January 30.